Motor proteins generate the forces for essential mechanical processes in our body. On a scale of nanometers—a millionth of a millimeter—motor proteins, for example, power our muscles or transport material within our cells. Such movements, invisible to the naked eye, can be made visible by Erik Schäffer: the professor of Cellular Nanoscience at the University of Tübingen develops special force microscopes, so-called optical tweezers, to measure how these molecular machines work mechanically. His team at the Center for Plant Molecular Biology has now improved the technology. Special probes, germanium nanospheres, enable a higher resolution of displacements and forces that the motors generate. The results have been published in the journal Science.
source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-nanospheres-cell-motors.html
